West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-03

traps off with us. One stratagem
was after the model of the Grecian
horse and would have done credit to
Ulysses. They sent train of wag-
ons up the Little river turnpike from
Fairfax, apparently without any
guard, thinking that such bait
would catch me. But each wagon
were concealed six of the Bucktails,
who would, no doubt, have stopped
my career, if l had given them n
chance. Fortunately, l never saw
them, tor on that day | had gone by
another route down to Fairfax.
When the Bucktails returned they
had the satisfaction of knowing that
L had been there in their absence.
Another attempt to capture him is
thus related: Cavalry expedition
under Major Gilmer was sent up to
Loudon to do the work. He had
conceived the idea that / had my
headquarters in Middleburg and
might be caught by surrounding the
place in the nighttime. He arrived
before day and threw a Gordon of
pickets around il. At the dawn of
day he had the village as completely
invested as Metz was by the Ger
mans. He then gradually contract
ed his lines and proceeded in person
to the hotel, where he supposed L
was in bed. / was not there; | nev-
er had been. Soldiers were sent to
every house, with orders to az
rest every man they could find.
When he drew in his net there was
not a single soldier in it. He had,
however, caught anumber of old men.
1t was a frosty morning, and he
amused himself by making a soldier
take them through a squad drill to
keep them warm; occasionally he
would mark time in the street in front
of the hotel. All this afforded n
good deal of fun to the Major, but
was rather rough on the old men.
He thought, or pretended to think,
that they were the parties who had
attacked his pickets. After march
of twenty-five miles he did not like
to retire to camp without some
trophies, so he determined to carry
the graybeards with him. He mount
ed each one behind a trooper and
started off. Now, it so happened
that l had notified my men to meet
that morning at Rec:or's Cross
Roads. which is about four miles
above Middleburg. When | got
there / heard that the latter place
was occupied by Federal cavalry.
With seventeen men | started
down the pike to look after them.
OF course, with my small force, all
that l coald expect to do was to cut
off some struggling parties who
might be marauding about the
neighborhood. When ! got near
Middleburg | learned that they had
gone. We entered the town at a
gallop. The ladies all Immediately
crowded around us. There were, Of
course, no men among them. There
was, of course, great indignation at
the rough usage they had received,
and their wives never expected to
see them again. And then, to add
to the pathos Of the scene, were the
tears and lamentations Of the daugh-
ters. There were many as pure and
as bright as any pearl that ever
shone IN in Oman's green water, and
their beauty had won the hearts Of
many of my men. To avenge the
wrongs of distressed damsels is one
of the vows of knighthood, so we
spurred on to overtake the Federal
cavalry, in hopes that by some acci-
dent we might be able to liberate
the prisoners" Near Aldie the Col
onel and his party came upon what
he took to be 4 part of Major Gill
mer's rear guard, and in the charge
the COlonePs horse ran away with
him. II had scarcely started in the
charge" he says, "before / discover
ed that there was a body Of cavalry
dismounted at a mill near the road
side which / had not before seen.
They were preparing to feed their
horses. / was unable to
stop my horse when l got to them,
but he kept straight on like streak
of lightning. Fortunately, the dis
mounted troopers were so much
startled that it never occurred to
them to take a shot at me IN trans
Hu They took it for granted that
an overwhelming force was on them,
and every man was for saving him
self. Some took to Bull Run noun
tain, which was near by, and others
ran into the mill and buried them
selves like rats in the wheat bins.
The mill was grinding, and some
were so much frightened that they
jumped into the hoppers and came
near being ground up into -four.
When we pulled them out there was
nothing blue about them" But the
Colonel's horse bore him on, and
another body of cavalry ahead of
him, into which ne was madly plung
ing, became frightened and took to
their heels. just rs he jumped from
his horse to escape capture himself.
Just then Federal officer made his